Your Search Results

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        March 2017

        Asia in Western fiction

        by Robin Winks

        Any reader who has ever visited Asia knows that the great bulk of Western-language fiction about Asian cultures turns on stereotypes. This book, a collection of essays, explores the problem of entering Asian societies through Western fiction, since this is the major port of entry for most school children, university students and most adults. In the thirteenth century, serious attempts were made to understand Asian literature for its own sake. Hau Kioou Choaan, a typical Chinese novel, was quite different from the wild and magical pseudo-Oriental tales. European perceptions of the Muslim world are centuries old, originating in medieval Christendom's encounter with Islam in the age of the Crusades. There is explicit and sustained criticism of medieval mores and values in Scott's novels set in the Middle Ages, and this is to be true of much English-language historical fiction of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Even mediocre novels take on momentary importance because of the pervasive power of India. The awesome, remote and inaccessible Himalayas inevitably became for Western writers an idealised setting for novels of magic, romance and high adventure, and for travellers' tales that read like fiction. Chinese fictions flourish in many guises. Most contemporary Hong Kong fiction reinforced corrupt mandarins, barbaric punishments and heathens. Of the novels about Japan published after 1945, two may serve to frame a discussion of Japanese behaviour as it could be observed (or imagined) by prisoners of war: Black Fountains and Three Bamboos.

      • Trusted Partner
        Medicine
        November 2019

        Migrant architects of the NHS

        South Asian doctors and the reinvention of British general practice (1940s-1980s)

        by Julian Simpson, Keir Waddington

        Migrant architects of the NHS draws on forty-five oral history interviews and extensive archival research to offer a radical reappraisal of how the National Health Service was made. It tells the story of migrant South Asian doctors who became general practitioners in the NHS. Imperial legacies, professional discrimination and an exodus of UK-trained doctors combined to direct these doctors towards work as GPs in some of the most deprived parts of the UK. In some areas, they made up over half of the general practitioner workforce. The NHS was structurally dependent on them and they shaped British society and medicine through their agency. Aimed at students and academics with interests in the history of immigration, immigration studies, the history of medicine, South Asian studies and oral history. It will also be of interest to anyone who wants to know more about how Empire and migration have contributed to making Britain what it is today.

      • Trusted Partner

        Work-Life Balance

        Malevolent Managers and Folkloric Freelancers

        by Wayne Reé, Benjamin Chee

        When a malevolent multinational arrives on our shores, familiar creatures like pontianaks, manananggals, rākṣasīs and ba jiao guis are forced out of their jobs. Some give in and sign up for mundane corporate life – but others would rather fight than join the broken-spirited hordes of the (desk)bound. Benjamin Chee’s comics and Wayne Rée’s prose intertwine in this collection to bring you familiar Asian mythology in an even more familiar setting: the realm of dead-end work, glass ceilings and truly hellish bosses.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        January 2024

        Russian strategy in the Middle East and North Africa

        by Derek Averre

      • Trusted Partner
        Medicine
        September 2023

        Situating religion and medicine in Asia

        Methodological insights and innovations

        by Michael Stanley-Baker

        This edited volume presents the latest research on the intersection of religion and medicine in Asia. It features chapters by internationally known scholars, who bring to bear a range of methodological and geographic expertise on this topic. The book's central question is to what extent 'religion' and 'medicine' have overlapped or interrelated in various Asian societies. Collectively, the contributions explore a number of related issues, such as: which societies separated out religious from medical concerns, at which times and in what ways? Where have medicine and religion converged, and how has such knowledge been defined by scholars and cultural actors? Are 'religion' and 'medicine' the best terms by which scholars can grapple with knowledge about the sacred and the self, destiny and disease?

      • Trusted Partner
        August 2011

        From South to North:Back to North

        by Yue Nan

        This is an epic book depicting the Chinese scholars of the last century in a panoramic manner. The book’s time span is nearly one century, involving most of Chinese master scholars, such as Cai Yuanpei, Wang Guowei, Liang Qichao, Mei Yiqi, Chen Yinke and Qian Zhongshu. In the book, Yue makes an extensive investigation and revelation. It will help the reader broaden their minds and make them mediate that period in sigh. The book is rewarded as one of ten best non-fiction books in 2011 by Asian Weekly. Mao Yushi, He Liangliang, Li Guoqing, Yu Shicun, Zhang Yiwu and Nobel Prize winner Mo Yan recommended the book. CCTV and Peking University had decided to make a big TV series.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        April 2023

        Monarchies and decolonisation in Asia

        by Robert Aldrich, Cindy McCreery

        With original case studies of a more than a dozen countries, Monarchies and decolonisation in Asia offers new perspectives on how both European monarchs who reigned over Asian colonies and Asian royal houses adapted to decolonisation. As colonies became independent states (and European countries, and other colonial powers, lost their overseas empires), monarchies faced the challenges of decolonisation, republicanism and radicalism. These studies place dynasties - both European and 'native' - at the centre of debate about decolonisation and the form of government of new states, from the sovereigns of Britain, the Netherlands and Japan to the maharajas of India, the sultans of the East Indies and the 'white rajahs' of Sarawak. It provides new understanding of the history of decolonisation and of the history of modern monarchy.

      • Trusted Partner
        The Arts
        February 2019

        Contemporary Korean cinema

        Culture, identity and politics

        by Hyangjin Lee

        The first in-depth, comprehensive study of Korean cinema offering original insight into the relationships between ideology and the art of cinema from East Asian perspectives. Combines issues of contemporary Korean culture and cinematic representation of the society and people in both North and South Korea. Covers the introduction of motion pictures in 1903, Korean cinema during the Japanese colonial period (1910-45) and the development of North and South Korean cinema up to the 1990s. Introduces the works of Korea's major directors, and analyses the Korean film industry in terms of film production, distribution and reception. Based on this historical analysis, the study investigates ideological constructs in seventeen films, eight from North Korea and nine from South Korea.

      • Trusted Partner

        Childhood Memory of the North

        by Gao Hongbo

        This book is a collection of essays recalling childhood penned by the renowned writer Gao Hongbo. By reading it, the readers today will not only get to know the early days of new China in the northern region but will also feel what growing up is all about.

      • Trusted Partner
      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        November 2016

        Postcolonial minorities in Britain and France

        by Shailja Sharma

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        March 2017

        The Arctic in the British imagination 1818–1914

        by Andrew Thompson, John M. MacKenzie, Rob David

        The Arctic region has been the subject of much popular writing. This book considers nineteenth-century representations of the Arctic, and draws upon an extensive range of evidence that will allow the 'widest connections' to emerge from a 'cross-disciplinary analysis' using different methodologies and subject matter. It positions the Arctic alongside more thoroughly investigated theatres of Victorian enterprise. In the nineteenth century, most images were in the form of paintings, travel narratives, lectures given by the explorers themselves and photographs. The book explores key themes in Arctic images which impacted on subsequent representations through text, painting and photography. For much of the nineteenth century, national and regional geographical societies promoted exploration, and rewarded heroic endeavor. The book discusses images of the Arctic which originated in the activities of the geographical societies. The Times provided very low-key reporting of Arctic expeditions, as evidenced by its coverage of the missions of Sir John Franklin and James Clark Ross. However, the illustrated weekly became one of the main sources of popular representations of the Arctic. The book looks at the exhibitions of Arctic peoples, Arctic exploration and Arctic fauna in Britain. Late nineteenth-century exhibitions which featured the Arctic were essentially nostalgic in tone. The Golliwogg's Polar Adventures, published in 1900, drew on adult representations of the Arctic and will have confirmed and reinforced children's perceptions of the region. Text books, board games and novels helped to keep the subject alive among the young.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        September 2020

        Defense of the West

        by Stanley R. Sloan, Lawrence Freedman

      • Trusted Partner
        July 2021

        The World of the North

        Between Ragnarok and welfare utopia: A cultural-historical deconstruction

        by Bernd Henningsen

        — Analysis of how we view Europe's North and how this image emerged — An outsider's perspective on Nordic societies and their self image — Serves as an introduction into Northern European culture and society Our image of Northern Europe has been shaped by projections and desires in the long history of encounters: berserkers and war atrocities, bad weather, beautiful nature, stable political systems, social welfare, equality and prosperity, peacefulness, low corruption, hygge and Bullerby – all this is part of the Nordic narrative. But what about the religious, linguistic and ethnic homogeneity, what about the muchvaunted Nordic cooperation? How do politics "work" in the North? Why are Northern Europeans the happiest people?

      • Trusted Partner
        Mind, Body, Spirit

        SHAMANISM

        Personal Quests of Communion with Nature and Creation

        by Oscar Miro-Quesada

        Awaken Your Shamanic Soul Respected kamasqa curandero Oscar Miro-Quesada teaches shamanism as a tradition of healing, power, and wisdom that sees all life as interconnected and sacred. Understand the shamanic art of a noble death, becoming a hollow bone, traveling through the three worlds, and how to embrace the imaginal beauty of a living, sentient, and ever-evolving cosmos. Feel soul-animating moments with Creation itself as don Oscar and selected sacred storytellers share their transformative experiences. Cultivate spiritual discernment, learn how to consecrate your shamanic ceremonial space, practice an ancient Andean earth walk ritual, internalize the soul-nurturing beauty of Mother Earth with the Pachamama Renewal Process, work with the five principal animal allies of Universal Shamanism, and discover the loving grace that sparked the emergence of shamanism as a universal path of healing service. You must live the path to understand it. SHAMANISM is the medicine our world needs for seven generations and beyond.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        February 2013

        Building a neighborly community

        Post-cold war China, Japan, and Southeast Asia

        by Daojiong Zha, Weixing Hu

        Building a neighborly community, available for the first time in paperback, explores the political economy of post-cold war East Asian co-operation by examining the history of intra-regional co-operation, against the background of China's rise and Japan's relative decline, both real and perceived. The book in particular examines how East Asian states have dealt with the South China Sea as a region-wide security challenge and the imperative for self-help after the 1997 economic crisis. The book builds on the explanatory strength of analytical eclecticism, and ultimately concludes that China, South Korea, Japan, and ASEAN states have aimed for constructing a neighborly community. The fundamental differences between a neighborly community and the kind of community that has emerged in Europe and North America are that qualification for membership is not conditional, the process of routine interactions is itself one of reassurance, the aim of inter-state interactions is to foster acceptance of each other, and changes in a member's foreign policy behaviour are accepted. ;

      • Trusted Partner
        Literature & Literary Studies
        July 2022

        Nordic Gothic

        by Maria Holmgren Troy, Johan Hõglund, Yvonne Leffler, Sofia Wijkmark

        Nordic Gothic traces Gothic fiction in the Nordic region from its beginnings in the nineteenth century, with a main focus on the development of Gothic from the 1990s onwards in literature, film, TV and new media. The volume gives an overview of Nordic Gothic fiction in relation to transnational developments and provides a number of case studies and in-depth analyses of individual narratives. It creates an understanding of this under-researched cultural phenomenon by showing how the narratives make visible cultural anxieties haunting the Nordic countries, their welfare systems, identities and ideologies. Nordic Gothic examines how figures from Nordic folklore function as metaphorical expressions of Gothic themes and Nordic settings are explored from perspectives such as ecocriticism and postcolonialism. The book will be of interest to researchers and post- and- undergraduate students in various fields within the Humanities.

      • Trusted Partner
        Humanities & Social Sciences
        July 2022

        Crossing borders and queering citizenship

        Civic reading practice in contemporary American and Canadian writing

        by Zalfa Feghali

        Can reading make us better citizens? In Crossing borders and queering citizenship, Feghali crafts a sophisticated theoretical framework to theorise how the act of reading can contribute to the queering of contemporary citizenship in North America. Providing sensitive and convincing readings of work by both popular and niche authors, including Gloria Anzaldúa, Dorothy Allison, Gregory Scofield, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Erín Moure, Junot Díaz, and Yann Martel, this book is the first to not only read these authors together, but also to discuss how each powerfully resists the exclusionary work of state-sanctioned citizenship in the U.S. and Canada. This book convincingly draws connections between queer theory, citizenship studies, and border studies and sheds light on how these connections can reframe our understanding of American Studies.

      Subscribe to our

      newsletter